Going Back to Basics: Importance of Ecophysiology when Choosing Functional Traits for Studying Communities and Ecosystems

Abstract

Striking progress has been made on conceptual and methodological aspects linking species traits to community and ecosystem responses to environmental change. However, the first step when using a trait-based approach (i.e., choosing the adequate traits reflecting species response to a given environmental driver) deserves much more attention. The first broad comparative studies, using worldwide datasets, have identified a number of traits that are, for example, good indicators of plant responses to water and nutrient availability, or good indicators of plant species defense against herbivory and plant effects on litter decomposition. Due to the successful explanation of global patterns of trait variation and the relatively easy measurements, some functional traits have become widely used. However, it is starting to be questioned whether the status of such "fashionable traits" is always justified; especially considering that particular traits might be the result of underlying traits that respond to distinct environmental factors. Some global trade-offs between traits reflecting contrasting resource use strategies do not hold under changing environmental conditions. Therefore, the choice of traits to up-scale responses of individuals to communities and ecosystems should be based on their adequacy for a specified ecological context. Here, we present a framework that helps identifying objective criteria for the choice of functional traits for studies on community assembly and ecosystem processes and services. This framework comprises five steps: 1) identification of the main environmental drivers; 2) identification of the relevant physiological processes allowing species to cope with the environment; 3) selection of traits that are involved in such physiological processes; 4) validation of the select traits at community level and; 5) evaluation of possible consequences for ecosystem processes/services.

Chlorophyll fluorescence varies more across seasons than leaf water potential in drought-prone plants

“…In this study we have demonstrated that a better comprehension of how tropical species from drought-prone habitats cope with changes in water availability can be based on measurements of seasonal variation in Ψ L and chlorophyll fl uorescence. These fi ndings reinforce the importance of ecophysiological knowledge when selecting functional traits for predicting responses to climate change (Rosado et al 2013), and open important avenues for models specifi cally concerning species from dry environments. In addition, because we focused on species from the Atlantic rain forest complex that are able to occupy coastal sandy plains environments, our results contribute to the understanding of the environ-mental fi ltering that affects community assembly in resource-poor habitats.…”

Handbook of protocols for standardized measurement of terrestrial invertebrate functional traits

“…We focus on several traits which, based on the existing literature, are among the most widely used or are in urgent need of standardized measurement protocols that can be applied across taxa. From the user perspective, trait selection is often one of the crucial aspects in trait‐based approaches and it has to be based clearly bearing the research question being asked (Rosado, Dias & de Mattos ; Shipley et al . ).…”

Plant Distribution in Arid Ecosystems of Eastern Alborz Ranges at 36° Latitude

“…Then, data can be effectively analyzed and solutions devised through applying modeling tools, such as TOPSIS method (Zare-maivan & Memariani, 2002) and TWINSPAN and other data management programs. In this way, considering the fact that plant species interaction with environmental parameters at local level determines their community structure (abundance, diversity), scale and pattern of distribution (Hix & Pearcy, 1997) it is useful to link local adaptation strategies to global changes towards developing the tool of predicting responses (Rosado et al, 2013) to broader and comprehensive environmental changes.…”

“…Kamrani et al (2011) reported extensively on the wetland vegetation of the southern AMR and sporadic reports on arid and Irano-Touranian vegetation are available (Karimi et al, 2003;Asadi, 1988Asadi, -2008. Roodi (2009) studied the plant species richness of the N. Semnan province, Iran and documented that species of Asteraceae (12.2%), Poaceae (8.8%), Apiaceae (6.7%), Papilionaceae (6.21%), Chenopodiaceae، Brassicaceae and Labiatae (5.8%), Caryophyllaceae (5%), Rosaceae (4.2%) and Boraginaceae (4.2) were more frequent and expanding in different altitudes. Despite such reports, flora and ecophysiological aspects of vegetation of a huge area in the region still needs to be explored further.…”

“…Although, ecological surveys increase our understanding of the interactions of man and environment and equip environmental managers and stakeholders with up-to-date data, it is the ecophysiological knowledge of functioning plant communities that elucidates ecological processes (Rosado et al, 2013), such as plant species distribution (Borchert, 1994), functional convergence (Grime, 1977;Wright et al, 2002), species interactions, symbiosis and coexistence (Markesteijn et al, 2011;Zare-maivan, 2013), environmental filtering (Grime, 1977;Borchert, 1994), ecosystem functions and services (Wardle et al, 1998) and ecosystem conservation (Wikelski & Cooke, 2006). However, despite many sporadic ecological studies on Irano-Tourani vegetation of Iran in the past, recent human development activities have damaged vegetation cover in many, already fragile, semi-arid mountainous ecosystems.…”